A so-called “new” study into talking to babies? !

I think most of us know that learning a foreign language and learning music, too, opens pathways in the brain, improves brain plasticity, so it would seem to be logical that listening to speech from newborn onwards would have the same effect.

But that is the point, with babies, it is nothing to do with increasing 'plasticity'. The cause is that talking to a baby stimulates the development of myelin, a substance that makes brain signals more efficient in language relate areas of their their brains, which is something different.

Yes MOnica this is the important point and could help children who maybe have some developmental problems.

Increasing myelin production would be great. Interesting if they can follow this project through to see if it leads to a reduction in number of MS cases.
As there is a higher incidence of MS in Scotland does this demonstrate that we don't talk enough to babies up here? So many avenues of research opened up! Excellent.

That could be a real breakthrough Aveline

FannyCornforth

🤦‍♀️
My very wise Nan said it started to go down hill with foreword facing prams and pushchairs.
She reckoned mother and baby needed to by facing each other and mother pointing out various things on their travels to the child.

Absolutely Fanny. I was going to say that!

Another thing I have noticed when I walk past somewhere like Starbucks is that all the young mums are sitting in there chatting together, and their babies and toddlers are strapped into buggies, sometimes for hours.

When my children were that age, we couldn't afford to buy coffees out, and would have a coffee morning at home for a few friends where the children could play on the floor and socialise, or in the garden and run about.

Antonia

Phones and babies don't mix unfortunately. Maybe in the future people will realize the damage caused to children by a lack of interaction.
I am so pleased that my children were adults before smartphones were invented.
The trouble is, they are almost indispensable today.

There is a lot of research going on in this field.
Interesting piece on Woman’s Hour this morning.
Some want it made law that means no phones before 16.

Aveline

I had a reversible push chair for my children. My sister brought it back for me from France. I used to have them facing me when very young but they liked to see where we were going as they grew older. It was simple to change the direction of the seat. It's surprising that it's not more common.

I had one for DGD in late 2010s. I knew they weren't particularly common, but I didn't realise they were really unusual. I think it was a Joie, and as it was Granny's stroller, it wasn't expensive. DGD's buggy at home could also flip.

I also thought of the MS connection with myelin, Aveline. I recall years ago when living in an area of Scotland that had extremely high MS rates, that they didn’t know what was causing it. I expect many of us remember Jacqueline Du Pre, as well. That’s the value of this sort of research. It eventually led to the cause of MS being found, though as I understand it, it’s the breakdown of existing myelin, rather than non-development that is the issue.

Maybe better quality development of myelin would be less liable to breakdown? So many avenues for research! 😀

Antonia

The very posh Silver Cross prams face towards mum (more likely nanny), but they are not practical. You can buy reversible facing pushchairs, but as an adult, I can't bear travelling backwards, and I wonder if babies too prefer to see where they are going.

I had a silver cross pram for my GS. He insisted on facing away from me but as he was quite high up we could still chat. Although he was strapped in his harness wasn’t too tight and he was able to move around and turn to see me.
He sat in it and played in it if I was cooking and yes, he also slept in it in the garden. I was always near at hand.

Foxygloves, perhaps we really do need to state the obvious. Way back in the 1980s, the playgroup leader said 'Oh, I can tell you talk to your boys a lot, they're so advanced! It set me to wondering who these weird parents were - the ones who just didn't talk to their kids.

Now, with a nearby nursery and primary school, I really do notice so many, just wandering along looking at their phones (like zombies) with little kids trailing behind - failing to interact or even hold hands when crossing the road. It's quite a worry and doesn't bode well for the future.

Foxygloves

Nanna8

But yes, Sparklefizz it does need saying, you are right.
It has broken my heart on occasion to see a young mum glued to her phone while her baby in its buggy looks as if they are trying to make eye contact with their mum

Same here☹️
Am always telling my DD to get off her phone and play with the little ones.It’s not only teenagers superglued to their phones and a sad state of affairs if you ask me.

Aveline we are talking about the development of myelin in the brain in areas connected with language.

MS is something entirely different it attacks and destroys the myelin sheath that coats every nerve. This how the MS Society explain it.

A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body. In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either slightly or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques. This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all. As well as losing the myelin, there can sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibres too. It's this nerve damage that causes the increase in disability that can occur over time.

Talking to children builds up myelin, but only in the language areas of the brain

I looked after my first grandson for 5 days a week until he started pre school at 3. I always talked to him. If we went shopping he sat in the trolley and we talked, if we had lunch in M&S he sat in a high chair and we talked. In spite of his problems with ASD and ADHD his school reports always mentioned the breadth of his vocabulary and his understanding of words. I was once sitting in M&S with him and a lady came over and said how lovely it was to see me talking to him - but why wouldn't I?

M0nica I do know what causes the disabling condition of MS. I think that research into the initial development of myelin is interesting and there must be implications for the redevelopment of myelin missing after the auto immune attack on it. As I said, so many potential areas for research.

It’s obvious that talking to babies and infants is good for them. What the study is explaining is what the neurological effect is. That it increases Myelin and shapes the brain. You might not be interested in the science of it, but others are. There is nothing ‘bleeding obvious’ about about neurological change 🙄

As a retired teacher I hope they now publish a study on the importance of singing nursery rhymes to young children for early reading skills, rhyme, rythmn and memory. My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter can recite several. We practise in the car, great fun!

Talking, singing, nursery rhymes- all forms of interaction mothers have enjoyed with their babies since forever.
I'm not decrying modern scientific research but wryly amused that Mother Nature and maternal instinct have been doing the right thing since time began without knowing why

The talking to and letting the baby resond needs to start from birth so mums and dads and grandparents start to understand their babies needs . If a baby is not responded to it stops communicating.

I feel for the little ones nowadays you see them with mum too busy into her phone and ignoring baby or baby holding mums phone to entertain them.

In the seventies, I sat in a hospital waiting area reading a Ladybird book to my eleven month old son who has congenital mental problems. I didn’t notice that the paediatrician had arrived, and was watching. He was quite effusive about how wonderful this was, and how he wished that more parents did the same. I knew that my son’s condition meant that speech would be a problem, and I was determined that he would talk. Sometimes I think that I might have overdone it!!

I used to leaf through baby books with my baby from about a month old.My own mum used to say why bother, the baby doesn’t understand,but I didn’t know how to ‘play’ so this was all I could think to do.I constantly talked to her,about everything and anything.
You could have a limited conversations with her at 18 months,and reason at about 2.
She was and still is a vociferous reader and has a degree in literature!And she can talk the back legs off a donkey!

So right Nanna8…..trouble is young mothers DONT talk to their babies while pushing prams….they talk to thier fones!!!
Then when the baby does eventually get the mums attention , it’s for the mum to usually screech at the child because she wants to get back to her ‘oh so interesting life’….I’ve seen this time without number while walking ….while on buses…..while on trains …and yes while in planes!!! I think maybe this is the cause if so many 5 year olds starting school without the basics ever being taught them . My daughter is a child counsellor and works in various schools where this age group can’t take themselves to the lavatory …. cant dress themselves after PE… can’t use a knife and fork and their language skills are not even basic. There has to be a reason why kids are going backwards!!! Look no further than the mobile in mums hand!

It may need to be said but it needs to be said via a message on a mobile phone as many mother's will only read it if they see it on a phone! I despair that the majority of female carers would not know if the baby was switched for a doll- there is no interaction . I'm surprised that any kids manage to speak at all!

Perhaps someone did get some form of academic recognition out of this, I would certainly like to think so.

Yes, our generation of mothers and grandmothers, plus our mothers and grandmothers knew this, but look around you next time you walk through the town, take a bus, or a train.

Young mothers are commonly seen pushing a pram with one hand and texting with the other, or talking on their phone . No communication with Baby at all!

So if even a very small proportion of these women start talking to their weans because they have read this article, I shall be happy and refrain from making snide comments.

A lot of what we took for granted has to be taught to young parents (and others) now.

Whose fault is this? Theirs or ours? Did they not listen to us, or did we not teach them what we thought was obvious?